Process of treating sugar-beets.



No. 803,945. PATENTED NOV. '7, 1905.

M. WEINRIGH. PROCESS OF TREATING SUGAR BEETS.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 23, 1905.

=Z5r03 main/r6070 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFIOE.

MORIZ IVEINRICH, OF YONKERS, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-THIRD TO WILHELMBAUR, OF NEvV YORK, N. Y., AND ONE-THIRD TO CARL PORTIUS, OF OARO,MICHIGAN.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 7, 1905.

Application filed January 23.1905. Serial No. 242,369.

To all whom it may concern:

' Be it known that I, Moniz WEINRIOH, a citizen of the United States,residing at Yonkers, in the county of VVestchester and State of NewYork, have invented new and useful Improvements in Processes of TreatingSugar- Beets, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to a new and useful process of treating sugar-beetsor defecating the juice of sugar-beets before such juice is extracted;and my invention consists, primarily, in comminuting or reducing thebeets to a mush and mixing therewith enough fluid mattersay cold milk oflime or a cold mixture of milk of lime and of defecated beetjuice-torender the mixture alkaline, then heating the mixture to defecate the.same, and finally extracting the juice, as I will hereinafter describe,and point out in the claims.

In the accompanying drawing I have illustrated by a vertical sectionalview a type of apparatus by means of which my process may besuccessfully carried out.

In a prior patent granted to me on the 22d day of December, 1903, No.747,520, I disclose a process of treating sugarcane, and I therein setforth a process by which the juice of sugar-cane may be defecated beforethe cane undergoes the ordinary milling operation. The principledisclosed in the prior patent may be utilized to great advantage in thetreatment of sugar-beets or defecating the juice of such beets beforethe juice is extracted, although the different nature of the two rawmaterialscane juice and beetj nice-requires that they shall bedifferently treated.

In carrying out the present process I have found the following to be apreferred procedure when extracting juice from sugar-beets, referencebeing had to the drawing for a more complete understanding of theinvention. 'Into a suitable tank A, I place thin milk of lime or amixture of such milk and of defecated beet-juice, said tank beingprovided with appropriate stirring devices a. From the tank leads a pi eI), provided with a controlling cook or va ve c, which regulates andcontrols the supply of milk of lime or mixture of milk of lime and ofdefecated beetjuice to a rasping machine B, which, as shown, is of thetype commonly employed in the beet-sugar industry, and which comprises,essentially, a rotatable drum (1, having a large number of closely-setsaw-blades, said drum being carried upon an appropriately-mounted shaftto which motion is transmitted in any well-known manner. The upperportion of the drum is covered by an appropriate hood 6, and the lowerportion of said drum operates in a suitable casing f. Therasping-machine has also a suitable hopper g, into which the beets arereceived and from which they are delivered to the rapidlyrevolving drumby means of suitable pushers h, of which there may be one or more. Thepusher is herein shown as of the reciprocating type operating across theopen bottom of the hopper and adapted to feed the beets directly to thedrum, whereupon the fine teeth of the saw-blades, with which the drum inpractice is provided, act upon the beets to comminute them and reducethem substantially to a mushy consistency. During this comminutingprocess, the cock 0 in the pipe I) being open, cold thin milk of limeand defecated beet-juice is running constantly from the tank and isbeing delivered through an inlet 4; upon the revolving drum, therebymixing with the beet-mush, the admixture dropping into the casing orchamber f, where a thorough and intimate mixing is effected by means ofa rotatable mixer C, having arms operating in a trough at the bottom ofthe casing. The bottom of the trough is provided in its whole lengthwith an opening or outlet, which is adjustable by means of a slide K orequivalent part and which permits the now thoroughly-mixed cold mush tobe delivered into a heating-chamb er D, which is interposed between themixing chamber or trough and the expressing-press or roller-mill E,which I will presently describe. In prac tice I prefer that the trough,the heatingchamber, and the roller-mill shall have about the same width.The heating-chamb er I prefer to construct of wrought or cast iron, withan inlet connecting with the mixing-trough and an outlet connecting withthe roller-mill, and within the heating-chamber I locate a number ofrotatable paddle-wheels Z or wheels .having lifting-arms operated in anywellknown and appropriate manner, said wheels adapted to advance thebeet-mush while the same is in a heated condition from the trough to theroller mill. I also prefer to construct the heatingchamber with a doublebottom m, in which steam is admitted through a pipe n for heatingpurposes, and to obtain a uniform advance movement of the mush throughthe chamber and to provide a maximum heating-surface I prefer to makethe bottom of the chamber under each paddlewheel rounded or concave, asshown. In addition to the indirect heating of the chamber D by means ofthe aforesaid double bottom and steam-pipe n I also prefer to employ adirect heating by steam in order to heat the beet-mush to the desiredtemperature in a given time. Therefore I let into the chamber D aperforated steam-pipe 0, which extends across the whole width of thechamber. The heated beet-mush on being advanced through theheating-chamber falls into the hopper p and between adjustably-mountedrollers q g and by the latter is fed in a uniform thickness into theroller-mill E. This mill, which may represent any suitable mill orexpressing-press, is herein shown as of the Poizot type commonly used inthe sugar industry, and it comprises two large iron or steel rollers 1"W, a series of small rollers s, and the three wooden rollers t t 29, allappropriately journaled in suitable bearings, the said iron or steelrollers r r being covered, if desired, with a layer of rubber or likematerial.

Over all of the rollers is run for their full Width the endless cloth u,composed of wool or cotton or other suitable textile material. Thiscloth is designed to closely fit upon the rollers, and to effect thisand take up any slack in the cloth I prefer in practice to mount theroller 25 in adjustable bearings. The roller-mill also has a trough intowhich the defecated juice is received and from which it passes to thecarbonating-tanks, as I will presently describe.

The operation of my process may be described as follows: Thesugar-beets, which have been previously washed in the usual manner, aredelivered continuously into the hopper g and delivered by the pushermechanism against the fast-revolving drum (Z and ground thereby into afine pulp or mush. At the beginning of the operation before anydefecated juice is available the tank A shall contain only a thin milkof lime of about 2.5 Baum and which milk of lime is run continuouslythrough the pipe 1) upon the drum, where it mixes with the beet-mush.The inflow is regulated by the cock 0 in such a manner that about fortypounds of milk of lime are used in every one hundred pounds of beets. Assoon as some defecated juice is available I prefer to use a mixture ofabout fifteen pounds of milk of lime of 5 to 6 Baum and abouttwenty-five pounds of defecated juice in every one hundred pounds ofbeets, because more concentrated juice is obtained in this manner. Theamount of lime to be used is two-thirds to one per cent. of CaO of theweight of beets, according to their quality, which is fully sufficientto defe'cate completely the juices in the beetmush and to render thedefecated juice decidedly alkaline. I consider it quite essential thatthe milk of lime or the mixture of milk of lime and of defecated juicewhen. used shall have a temperature below 30 centigrade when brought incontact with the beetinush, for I have found that when mixing the samehot certain gummy matters (pectin and arabin) become dissolved andrender later on the filtration through filter-presses almost impossible,making thereby the process of little value, if not absolutely worthless;but when mixing cold these gummy matters remain insoluble and thefiltration of the defecated and carbonated juice is readily effected. Inthe trough)" the mixing process is conducted for a while, so that themilk of lime will thoroughly commingle with the beetmush, and the limewill act on the cold juice of the mush and render it strongly alkaline.As soon as this is done the heating of the mush, and thereby thedefecation of the juice contained in it, can begin. The prepared mushpasses through the adjustable or gate-controlled passage between themixing chamber and the heatingchamber and enters the latter, as beforeexplained. In the heating-chamber the beet-mush is treated to aboutcentigrade, whereby all the cells of the comminuted beets will burst anda com plete defecation of the juice will take place. The bursting of thecells will render the mush quite soft, and since by the action of thelime on the juice the latter has lost all the viscosity socharacteristic to raw beet-juice the extraction of the defecated juiceby pressure is made much easier and more thoroughly than when pressing acold and undefecated mush. The thus-treated mush is delivered into theroller-mill and passes between the system of rollers and the endlesscloth, and the extraction of the juice is effected by the pressurebetween these parts. The extracted juice passes through the cloth andthence into a trough having a pipe 1), through which this juice isconducted to the carbonating tank or tanks for further treatment. Theremaining well -pressed pulp amounts only to about eighteen per cent. ofthe weight of the beets and contains about forty per cent. of drysubstances. This pulp drops from the endless cloth after it has passedover the roller t and said pulp may be re-pressed by saturating it firstwith water, and the juice obtained in this manner may be used instead ofwater in the preparation of the milk of lime. However, the extraction.by a good single pressing will be found in most cases quitesatisfactory, as the pulp will contain only about three per cent. ofsugar, which is equal to about 0.5 per cent. of the weight of the beets.The pulp IIO will contain all the matters precipitated by the action ofthe lime in the defecation, whereby the feeding value of such pulp ismuch greater than when the defecation is done after the extraction, asnow carried out universally. The pulp is alkaline and will thereforekeep sweet for a much longer period than the ordinary pul The extractedjuice running from the mil or press into the carbonation-tanks isperfectly defecated and of a very light color. It is there heated up,some more lime added, and then carbonated in the usual manner. Generallyfrom onehalf to one per cent. less lime (in weight of beets) willproduce the same purification than if the juice had been extracted bythe diffusion process now universally in use.

It is obvious that instead of the hereinbefore-described Poizot press ormill an ordinary three-roller steel mill when provided with an endlesscloth and means for tightening the same can be employed, and instead ofthe before-described devices for comminuting, for treating, and forheating the beets other suitable devices may be used.

The essential advantages of this process, compared with the diffusionprocess now commonly practiced, are the following: First, only aboutfifteen per cent. of water is required, as against about two hundred percent; second, there is no waste water, and therefore no losses of sugarand other matter by waste water; third, the whole operation from beetsgoing into the rasper until the defecated juice enters thecarbonation-tanks takes from seven to eight minuites, against over onehour to obtain raw, undefecated, diffusion-juice; fourth, the juiceobtained is more concentrated, thus requiring less evaporation. It showsonly about 2 Brix less than the juice in the beets against about 4 Brixless.with diflusion; fifth, from one-half to one per cent. of lime issaved in carbonation; sixth, the pulp obtained by single pressingamounts only to about eighteen per cent. of weight of beets with aboutforty per cent.

of dry substance. It is alkaline and keeps well. It contains all theorganic and inorganic matter precipitated by the defecation, and itsfeeding value is therefore much greater. When drying such pulp, only oneand one-half pounds of water has to be evaporated to obtain one pound ofdry substance, while eight to nine pounds of water have to be evaporatedto obtain one pound of dry substance from diffusion-pulp. The loss of suar in pulp is not greater than the loss in puIp and waste water withdiffusion. No more power, labor, and steam are required than withdiffusion.

I am aware that it is not broadly new to use lime in various stages ofthe diffusion process. Therefore I do not claim such use of lime as myinvention, the diffusion process being fundamentally different from whatI have herein referred to as a rasping and pressing process.

Having thus described my invention,what I claim as new, and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The described process of treating sugarbeets consisting incomminuting the beets and then mixing with the comminuted mass, while ina cold state, sufficient milk of lime to render the mass alkaline, thenheating the mass and finally extracting the juice by pressure.

2. The described process of treating sugarbeets consisting in reducingthe beets to a mushy consistency, then mixing therewith enough cold milkof lime to render the mixture alkaline, then heating the mixture to sucha degree that the juice contained in it is completely defecated, andfinally extracting this defecated juice by pressure.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in presence of twosubscribing witnesses.

MORIZ IVEINRICH.

Witnesses:

LESLIE M. SAUNDERS JAMEs S. FIToH.

